


Gold Shadow

by Salamandriod



Series: Daemon AU [3]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-23 00:56:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11978730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salamandriod/pseuds/Salamandriod
Summary: Sebastian never expects one job to turn into another, but sometimes that's just what happens.





	Gold Shadow

Recon wasn’t Sebastian’s preferred job, but with the money he was being offered he couldn’t turn it down. His employer wanted more information on the ever elusive James Moriarty, and no one else was better suited to the job. 

 

From his perch a few rooftops away, all he could see was the man presumed to be Moriarty typing away at a laptop. Nothing particularly interesting for his employer. He sighs and leans back, letting himself enjoy the sun on his skin. 

 

He hears a flutter of wings beside him, breaking him out of his zen, but he doesn't bother to open his eyes just yet. “Spot anything?” he asks.

 

“There was a plump pigeon that looked good,” Caelina replies casually.

 

He opens his eyes and turns to look at his daemon. “You know what I meant,” Sebastian scoffs. “We can eat when we get home.”

 

The eagle sighs, fluttering her wings so it’s more dramatic. “If it means we can leave sooner, I couldn’t spot anything in his office. Not even a picture of anyone. I don’t think we’ll get anything on this guy by watching him,” she says. She pauses for a moment, then adds, “Supposing this is even Moriarty.”

 

Sebastian sighs. “From everything we’ve seen so far, he is. Any normal businessman would have some personal touches to his office, wouldn’t he? Or they’d have a little seat of honor to show off their daemon, like Father.” His voice tightens at the mention of father, but the man had provided a good example for what someone who thinks too much of themselves would do. He stops to think, then smirks. “I bet Moriarty’s daemon is a tarantula or something evil like that,” he muses.

 

Caelina does a little chirping laugh, then jumps up onto his shoulder. “If it’s a snake, I want kill it.”

 

“I’ll try to get the hit for us, just for you,” he teases. He reaches across to scrub a finger against the side of her head. “I don’t think our employer wants him dead, though, not yet. Otherwise this would be the easiest shot I’ve ever made.”

 

As thought to prove his point, he leans down to look through his scope again. The man has stood now, and is staring into space as though listening to someone out of sight. After a few moments of that, he goes to the window and closes the blinds. 

 

“Maybe not so easy,” he says, leaning back again. 

 

Caelina chirps comfortingly as he starts taking his rifle apart. “At least we can go and eat now.”

 

Despite the misery of working recon, Sebastian can’t help a laugh. “I swear, half of what’s on your mind is food,” he teases. 

 

“I can’t help it, it’s in my nature,” she replies, though there only amusement in her voice.

 

Sebastian shakes his head, then tilts his shoulder towards the edge of the roof. “Go ahead and catch that pigeon, then, I’ll meet you at home.”

 

Caelina chirps appreciatively, then leaps off of his shoulder and back into the sky.

 

* * *

 

 

Sebastian sits outside a cafe, a half empty cup of coffee on the table in front of him along with a tablet to read the news. He casually leans back in his chair and looks at the sky. He spots Caelina in the distance, circling their target. Moriarty was close.

He turns his attention back to his tablet, appearing casual. Sure enough, the man they’d been watching earlier emerges from the crowd on the sidewalk and walks into the cafe. 

To his disappointment, Sebastian doesn’t see any sign of a daemon with him. Three weeks of observation, and he still hadn’t figured out much about the man. All he’d found out was that the man had a taste for expensive clothes, enjoyed terrible music, and had no apparent blood ties to any living human. 

Honestly, Sebastian was starting to wonder if the man even  _ was _ human. It certainly didn’t seem like he had a daemon, and that might explain why so many people feared such a harmless looking man. 

He watches Moriarty though the window casually. If he didn’t know better, he just looked like an ordinary businessman waiting for his drink.

To Sebastian’s surprise, he grabs two drinks when they’re called and sits down. Maybe, just maybe he thinks, he’ll actually learn something about the man. 

He glances up at the sky again and scratches his ear, letting Caelina know that they might be there for a while. She glides off and lands on a nearby rooftop. 

Sebastian watches Moriarty for a while, but the man never looks up when someone passes by, as though he wasn’t expecting anyone to join him despite getting two drinks. He jots some notes down on his tablet and pretends to look casual. 

Movement draws his attention, and he looks up just in time to see Moriarty walk out of the cafe, cup in hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Caelina leap off the roof again to tail him, leaving Sebastian with nothing to do but be confused.

A moment later a woman exits the building and approaches him. “I was asked to give this to you,” she said, placing a cup on the table before him. Before he can ask any questions, she turns and disappears back inside.

He pops the lid open and takes a sniff. It smells like coffee and nothing else. In fact, it smells just like his usual order. Still, he’s not so stupid as to just blindly accept a drink, so he puts the lid back on and looks at the cup itself. There’s no phone number written on it, so it wasn’t from some timid admirer, but underneath the cardboard sleeve is a location and a time written in the same loopy handwriting that he knew to be Moriarty’s.

He finishes off the last of the coffee he’d bought to try and quell the growing knot of anxiety in his chest, then grabbed the gifted one and stood. He signaled to Caelina to let her know that they were done for now, then started off in the opposite direction that Moriarty went.

  
  
  


“I’m not sure he has a daemon at all,” she says once she’s landed on Sebastian’s shoulder. He can hear the unease in her voice and feel her claws poking into his skin, so Sebastian offers her one of his chips to help placate her. “I never saw anything following him, and I couldn’t see anything sitting on him.”

“I didn’t see a daemon either,” Sebastian says, sighing. “But there has to be a better explanation than that he just doesn’t have one. He’s still got to be human, even if he tries to look not to be.” He doesn’t quite believe his own words, but he’d been hired to find out everything he could about Moriarty so he’d do his damn best.

They’re silent for a few moments, thinking over the possibilities. “Maybe he also has a bird,” Caelina suggests weakly. “Or maybe a rat in his pocket.”

Sebastian shakes his head, but doesn’t offer any other suggestions. “By the way,” he adds, setting his food down on the bench to pick up the coffee again to show her the message. “We’re meeting him tonight.”

 

* * *

 

 

Sebastian arrives early, not because he wants to make a good impression on a man that could certainly have him killed, but so that they can scope the place out. He’d been expecting an abandoned warehouse, as cliche as it was, but instead he was led to a little restaurant with some outdoor seating. 

He almost thinks he has the wrong place until Caelina returns to his shoulder. “There’s two snipers covering this entire area,” she says softly. “I don’t think you should try anything funny.”

“I didn’t plan to.” With that, he steps out of the shadows and casually enters the restaurant. 

Before he can so much as say a word to the hostess, she glances down at her podium and back up at him. “Come with me, Mr Moran,” she says. She quickly turns and leads him to a table outside and under a tree, which he assumes meant it was selected with Caelina in mind. The hostess turns and leaves him without even giving him a menu.

They sit there in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, keenly aware that they could be killed at any given moment. After what seems like an eternity to Sebastian, the man he’d been tailing for weeks approaches the table and sits across from him. 

“Sebastian Augustus Moran,” he greets. He swivels his head up to look in the tree. “And Caelina, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Moriarty,” Sebastian says, nodding his head slightly. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Moriarty smiles at him, but waits until after a waitress has given them glasses of water to speak. “Am I not allowed to take my admirer on a date? I hope you enjoyed the coffee.”

Sebastian glares at him. “I’m not an idiot, I poured it out,” he says flatly. “And I know you’re not an idiot either, so you know I’m not an admirer.”

Moriarty places a hand over where a heart would be, if he had one, which Sebastian isn’t entirely sure he does. “You poured it out? You wound me,” he said, false disappointment in his voice. He drops the act after a moment. “How much is your employer paying you to follow me?”

“Half a million,” he replies. It makes no sense to lie to the man, as something told him he already knew the answer. 

He scoffs, “Only half a million? Am I worth so little to them?” He sighs and shakes his head, then smiles at Sebastian. 

It makes a shiver run down his spine.

“One million to feed them lies.”

“You want me to betray my employer?” Sebastian asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I want you to prove your loyalty to your new employer,” Moriarty replies as though it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“What makes you think we’ll work for you?” Caelina cuts in before Sebastian can speak up. 

Moriarty looks up at Caelina with an almost murderous glare, then turns his attention back to Sebastian. “Consistent pay, guaranteed safety - as long as you’re loyal, of course, more interesting jobs than  _ boring _ recon,” he says, counting each out on his fingers. “I’ve had my eye on you for a while, and I’m in need of a new sniper. I’m certain you’ll find that most of my employees are quite happy to work under me.”

Sebastian considers the man for a moment. The money is tempting, and he’d be happy to never need to do recon again, but there’s still something he can’t quite get over. “I don’t know if I can work for someone who doesn’t have a daemon.”

Moriarty breaks into laughter, confusing Sebastian. At the same time, something rustles in the bushes beside them and out of instinct Caelina swoops down to attack it. Something orange streaks out of the bushes, just avoiding the eagle’s claws and takes a new hiding spot underneath the criminal’s chair. 

“I do ask that you refrain from trying to eat Aurea, my dear,” Moriarty says to the eagle. He leans down and offers his hand to the fox daemon, who affectionately butts her head into it. He sits back up and looks at Sebastian again. “Does that ease your worries?”

Sebastian is still staring at them open mouthed, in shock that in three weeks they’d never once spotted the little fox tailing him. Recon definitely wasn’t his strength. “When do you want me to start for you?” he asks once he’s able to form a coherent thought again.

Moriarty smiles at him, and briefly he thinks he’d do anything for the man. “You will find an envelope in your apartment when you return, fill your report with lies from that, then come to my office tomorrow morning. I’ll take care of everything else,” he says. 

With that, the man stands and turns to leave. The fox, Aurea, emerges from under his chair, but pauses to look at Sebastian and Caelina in turn. “I think we’ll all get along swimmingly,” she says, something like a smug smile on her face. She too then turns and follows Moriarty, scampering under the other patron’s chairs.

Sebastian looks at Caelina, still a bit in shock. “You never-”

“If I saw a fox I would have told you,” she interrupts quickly. “She’s sneaky.”

“They’re both sneaky. Maybe it makes sense,” he muses.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been writing a lot the past couple weeks, and while I've barely looked at this since I wrote it I figured I ought to post it. It feels really good to write again, even if I'm not posting much here.


End file.
